Re-creating the Past - On the Quality of Archaeological Reconstruction on Gotland

Authors

  • Bodil Petersson University of Lund

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37718/CSA.1999.09

Abstract

Re-creating the past in full-scale, open-air reconstructions has been done for a long time, but the phenomenon has been accelerating and changing character during the last two decades. The article examines how the reconstruction activities are motivated. Explicit aims are contrasted with implicit motives inherent in reconstruction. Public utility is proposed as an important excuse for the reconstruction activities. As a consequence of the relationship between explicit aims and public utility, we get a rigid form of quality thinking that expresses elitism. Instead of fruitless criticism we can express more clearly what we expect from a reconstruction, and why. Examples used are taken from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

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Published

1999-12-28

How to Cite

Petersson, B. (1999) “Re-creating the Past - On the Quality of Archaeological Reconstruction on Gotland”, Current Swedish Archaeology, 7(1), pp. 131–148. doi: 10.37718/CSA.1999.09.

Issue

Section

Research Articles